The Invisible Circus - Hardcover

Egan, Jennifer

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0385473796 ISBN 13: 9780385473798

Publisher: Nan A. Talese, 1994

Synopsis

Phoebe O'Connor, eighteen in the summer of 1978, is too young to have partaken of the riotous carnival of the sixties, but old enough to feel the anxiety of its influence. Living in San Francisco with her widowed mother, Phoebe drifts along the edges of her life, obsessed by the memory of her charismatic older sister, Faith, a true flower child who died mysteriously in Italy eight years before. Believing that her sister's fatal journey holds the key to her own transformation, Phoebe bolts to Europe.
Phoebe follows the itinerary Faith had spelled out in postcards home - London, Amsterdam, Paris - but the millennial excitement of Faith's Europe has vanished, and Phoebe finds herself vulnerable and isolated. Finally she reaches Italy and traces her sister's last steps. But the truth Phoebe discovers is darker and more complicated than anything she has imagined, and finally she must face the human price her sister paid for taking her quest for personal liberation to the very edge.
Only by dispelling the ghosts of a romanticized past does Phoebe come into full possession of her world. Jennifer Egan portrays this fundamental passage with a mastery of riveting narrative extraordinary in a first novel. As it confronts the ambiguous legacy of the sixties, The Invisible Circus also beautifully and powerfully describes a journey essential to all of us.

About this title

From the Publisher

The hope and heartbreak of the Sixties still linger in America's consciousness. In this breathtaking debut, Jennifer Egan brings to life the seductive pull of that era as it exerts itself on two sisters, separated by a decade, who take enormous risks to personify its ideals. It is 1978. Phoebe O'Connor, 18, runs off to Europe seeking answers about the tragedy that has haunted her family for eight years: the sudden dead of her older sister Faith while in Italy. To Phoebe, Faith epitomizes the youthful, chaotic freedom of the Sixties, and imitating her becomes Phoebe's way of trying to elevate herself from a life that seems drab and unsatisfying compared to the vivid spectacle that was Faith's. Once in Europe, Phoebe follows the itinerary Faith spelled out in postcards from her fatal trip, landing in London, living in a hostel in Amsterdam, taking a tab of LSD in Paris. But instead of the millennial excitement that Faith had sensed in 1960s Europe, Phoebe encounters disappointment and ennui. And when Faith's old lover joins Phoebe to retrace those last days in Italy, Phoebe glimpses the human price that her sister paid in following her uncompromising quest for personal liberation. With its coolly graceful prose and mastery of narrative, The Invisible Circus is an unforgettable first novel by a writer of uncommon ability.

About the Author

Jennifer Egan was born in Chicago and grew up in San Francisco. Her short stories have appeared in The New Yorker, GQ, Mademoiselle, Ploughshares, and elsewhere, and she is the author of a short story collection entitled Emerald City. She lives in New York City.

About this edition

• Publisher: Nan A. Talese
• Publication date: 1994
• ISBN 10: 0385473796
• ISBN 13: 9780385473798
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 338